A doctor’s blog: In a nutshell

By Kirstin Buick

18 June 2013

In forthcoming weeks Dr Akashni Maharaj will blog about mental health issues and offer her expert knowledge and advice on the subject.

Hello everyone and a warm South African welcome to my first blog. I am Dr Akashni Maharaj, a psychologist, hypnotherapist and life coach in private practice. I am also a mom of two. I have an 18-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son.

Many of you must be wondering, “Who is this psychologist and what can she offer?” Let me give you a little peek into my life. Professionally, I am a therapist who can be considered within the psychology fraternity as an unconventional psychologist. I say unconventional because I look at the mind, body and the spirit when addressing mental health problems.

It’s my belief that when we look at the whole person, as opposed to parts of the person, one can achieve a lot more. With the trend of people moving towards spiritual enlightenment (not religious), a combined alternate and traditional approach seems to have far better results than just adopting traditional psychotherapy.

Outside the professional role as a psychologist, I’m an avid writer and I’ve just completed my first fiction novel (in the process of being reviewed by publishers).

I also take photographs during my leisure time. Photography is one of my passions as it beautifully captures all emotions on camera, and I’ve found that when you take a picture and hang it on your wall, it always lifts your spirits. When they said, “A picture paints a thousand words,” they knew what they were talking about.

Well, that’s me in a nutshell.

What you can expect from me in this blog is for me to share many of my experiences as a psychologist, my knowledge on various mental health issues, and maybe to throw in some tips for good measure. I know it’s hard to try to give advice in a blog but what I will try to do is ensure my topics are relevant and current and as helpful as possible.